Allensmore

Allensmore lies four miles to the south of Hereford.

Some people claim that the name Allensmore came from Alan de Plokenet (or Plugenet) of Kilpeck in the 13th century, when he reclaimed part of Haywood Forest and so the area became known as Alan’s Moor.

Other’s credit the name to Alain Fitzmain who held lands in the area, with the more being reference to the land.

Allensmore’s part inThe Herefordshire Commotion

In 1605, Allensmore’s part in the “Herefordshire Commotion” when it was the catalyst for an uprising of the Catholics who were refusing to attend C of E services. Allensmore not only had a Catholic landlord in the shape of John Seabourne, but also a seminary priest, Roger Cadwallader.

Alice Wellington, a Catholic who died in May of that year, was banished from the Church of England and so the vicar at the time refused to bury her; this led to a large number of people taking the matter into their own hands and processing Alice’s body under cover of darkness to the churchyard, where they buried her. The vicar was a little bitter about the way that things had gone recently in his parish – he had had no congregation to speak of for some considerable time – and this incident sent him scurrying to the Bishop, where he named several of the people involved in the burial – William Chadnor; James Cole and Philip Giles being three of them.

Shortly afterwards, the High Constable of the Hundred rolled up, and arrested these three men, but James and William managed to escape after a certain amount of violence. Another man, Leonard Marsh was dragged kicking and resisting back to Hereford, but just before arriving in the city, a gang of 50 armed men “persuaded” the Constable to release Leonard.

Following this, and presumably in the hope of quelling full scale Catholic rebellion, the Church and State swiftly stamped on any further outbreaks of trouble, but their task was not easy as many people disappeared over the border into Wales before they could be arrested, and those that stayed put up quite a fight.

Six weeks later, it was all over due to the arrests of priests and leaders, or their flight into Wales.

From the beginning of the 17th century until relatively recent times it was a very poor area with what were more or less slum cottages set along the roads with no structure to the village. It is still a strung out village but no longer poor.